West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini has indicated that Saturday evening’s game against Leicester will come too early for injured midfielder Pedro Obiang. The Spaniard missed last weekend’s home defeat against Spurs, which forced the Chilean gaffer to play a midfield trio of Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Robert Snodgrass against the Lilywhites.

With Andriy Yarmolenko out for six months following his Achilles rupture, Pellegrini would’ve been hoping for some good news on the Obiang front, but the 26 year old medio may now see action only in the midweek Cup game against Spurs.

Here is what Pellegrini had to say about Obiang’s injury at the pre match press conference. [Read more…]

Another disappointing result despite perhaps playing the better football of the two sides- that’s been the story for most of this season for Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham. Fans will count several games- Arsenal, Chelsea, Brighton and now Spurs, where the Irons deserved much more. Some would argue they played well enough to take 12 points from these four games, but the fact remains that they’ve taken only one, and find themselves stranded deep in the bottom half of the table with only 7 points to show for their efforts so far. Perhaps it should’ve been expected- the Hammers were winless in their last five at home under Martin Atkinson, the ref for the Spurs clash.

On the positive side, West Ham have now played five of the current Premier League “big” six in their opening nine games. Their next set of games appears to be far easier, but does Pellegrini have the personnel to do the job? The latest person to join the casualty ward was Andriy Yarmolenko, who ruptured his Achilles and joins a growing long term injury list which already contains the likes of Sanchez, Wilshere, Lanzini, Carroll and Reid. It’s not quite crisis time, but the rising amount of injuries will worry West Ham’s Chilean gaffer. [Read more…]

West Ham gave manager Manuel Pellegrini a fantastic birthday present as they beat Everton 3-1 at Goodison Park to claim their first points of the season. The Hammers, who had lost their first four games, were under lots of pressure coming into this fixture. Chelsea and Man Utd were their next opponents after the Everton game, meaning a loss at Goodison could potentially see the club start the season with 7 defeats. Add to this their poor H2H record against Everton- the Toffees had won more Premier League games against West Ham than any other club, and the Hammers had only been victorious twice in their last 22 visits to Goodison Park. [Read more…]

Fiorentina are weighing up a summer move for Pedro Obiang if Croatian midfielder Milan Badelj fails to pen a new deal at Stadio Artemio Franchi. Badelj, 29, is yet to put pen to paper on a new deal, and reportedly wants Champions League football, with Roma looking like his next destination, although Milan have also been linked with him in the recent past.

According to the Italian press, while Fiorentina are making last ditch attempts to persuade Badelj to sign a new deal, the Viola’s efforts are unlikely to yield fruit. The club have therefore drawn a shortlist of four replacements- Obiang is one, with Slavia medio Tomas Soucek, young Polish star Szymon Zurkowski and Federico Viviani being the other three.

Obiang has previous experience of playing in Italy- he was plying his trade for Sampdoria before moving to West Ham in 2015. However the 25 year old is contracted to the Hammers till 2022, having penned a fresh deal at the beginning of this season, which leaves West Ham with plenty of negotiating power should Fiorentina come in with a bid. [Read more…]

Michail Antonio has been named the Hammer of the Year at the Player Awards ceremony at the Intercontinental. The 27 year old edged out Manuel Lanzini and Pedro Obiang to the award. Lanzini however did get the Players’ Player of the Year Award.

Edimilson Fernandes won the Signing of the Year award, perhaps a testament to how poor the club’s signings have been this season when the winner has started only 3 games.

Antonio, who has also been linked with a switch away from the London Stadium in the summer, also appeared to quell those rumours when he mentioned that “he’d like to win it again” in his acceptance speech. [Read more…]